Heaven's falling (english version)
by pichichi
Summary: It could have been a pretty normal day in the life of Poe Dameron. But instead he first got into a fight with the First Order, lost against a TIE-fighter and crashed on an ice-planet. If that was not enough already, he wasn't alone. Chapter 5 & 6 - re-uploaded due to formatting errors in the former versions
1. Episode I - Crashed

Author's Note:

This is my first try on writing an english story. It is a translation of a WIP story I am currently writing in german. So I'd already like to apologize for spelling or grammar mistakes and happily invite you to comment if something is weird. And even if there is nothing wrong, you are of course also invited to leave a comment.

So, here is the story:

When Poe Dameron climbed into his X-Wing fighter on the green planet that was home to the Resistance base, he took the opportunity to have short a look around. The sun was shining down from a clear blue sky onto the green, forested and peaceful looking planet. He was waiting for the mechanics to finally finish positioning his co-pilot in the back of his fighter plane.

During the last weeks, the fighting with the First Order had clearly intensified. By now it was usual that any even small transport flight of the resistance had to be accompanied by at least five fighter planes for protection. So far, the day had been a pretty usual one with the one exception that his beloved friend BB-8 was not his partner for today. As the orange and white droid had taken a slight hit by some debris of a TIE fighter exploding in front of them the day before, it was still with the technical department to have the minor damage to its left side repaired. This however meant for Poe that today he had an unknown R2-unit behind him. It was nothing to really worry about as he wasn't considered to be the best pilot of the resistance without a reason, but you never knew for sure how the droid would act. BB-8 was used to his style of flying, but the R2-Unit behind him was not.

A few hours later, the transport had successfully landed on a rocky, red planet in the Luiisaa-System and was fully loaded with the spare parts, fuel, food and everything else that had been on the Resistance's list. On Poe's opinion, the flight had been suspiciously eventless. It was unusual for everything to go this well. The convoy's participants found out that this feeling was correct when they left the planet. They had just successfully passed a nearby asteroid field in the area and were preparing for stardust, when behind a white glowing planet a middle sized First Order ship appeared with a squadron of TIE fighters in tow. Poe, as the commander of the Resistance squadron, instantly ordered his own squadron into fighting position to protect the transporter so it could jump to light speed quickly and get away. And then hell broke loose.

The dark haired pilot loved the thrill of a good fight. Maybe that was why he was such a successful and well respected pilot in the Resistance. On his opinion you could not exceed the expectations put into you if you did not love what you did. So Poe did not hesitate a second to enter the battle, although his squadron was clearly outnumbered. He could be proud of his companions as they delivered a hell of a fight and had quickly taken out several of the opponent's fighters. His count was currently standing at six with the seventh opponent in clear sight. He took a sharp turn to the left, rolled his X-Wing over and put himself behind his prey with another skilled move.

Thank god, the droid in the back had not yet tried to protest or worse interfere with his movements that always were close to the limit of the ships physical capabilities. With the sleek black ship right in front of him and just inside his cross fires it was an easy target for the 33 year old man. So it took him only one shot to destroy the ship. When the TIE-fighter blew off just in front of him, Poe made another sharp movement to the left to turn and help one of his other pilots who had a TIE fighter right on his tail.

But before the Black Squadron leader was able to intervene, Black Five had disappeared in a fireball. The man was only able to stare in horror as he followed the delicate movements of that TIE Fighter in front of him. The ship not went for Black Three and started to follow him. That was for sure a skilled pilot aboard. As he had always loved a challenge and it was out of question that the TIE-fighter should not be able to kill another one of his companions, he went on in pursuit of the TIE fighter. He steered his X-Wing right behind the TIE Fighter still following Black Three, trying to destroy it quickly with a set of well-aimed shots.

Unfortunately his opponent was able to evade the hit rather easily. But at least his action had the immediate effect that the fighter stopped to follow Black Three and turned sharply to face Poe instead of Black Three in a fight. The pilot couldn't help but grin. "Hello then, you son of a bitch. May the best one win." So while the others were still busy with the other TIE fighters, the leader of the squadron got involved in a personal fight with the one TIE fighter right in front of him. The protests of the droid behind him got louder any minute as Poe had to take the ship even closer to its physical borders. He had to admit that the First Order pilot was rather good. Poe had seen a fair share of good pilots for the First Order in his numerous battles but never one like that.

Poe knew that this battle would not be ending any time soon as both of them were very capable of avoiding each other's shots. On the intercom Black Two gave a last cry before he was blasted into oblivion by a TIE-Fighter right behind him. That made Poe lose his concentration for a split second. Unforgiving as the First Order was, that mere second was enough to get hit. Poe had been able to make an evasive action so the important parts of the ship were not hit. Instead it had directly taken out the droid behind him. Poe thanked all higher spirits that BB-8 had not been with him today. He would never have forgiven himself if his friend had been destroyed by that shot. Being co-pilotless made it even more difficult for him, because now all the stabilizing action in the background was off which made his ship be less manoeuvrable.

The fighting took on for quite a while and the resistance pilot was starting to get annoyed. This was impossible. He was Poe Dameron, resistance fighter pilot number one and he had been involved in a cat fight with a single TIE fighter for incredible ten minutes now. And he did not even hit that stupid fighter even once. As there was no end of this in sight he had to step up again. So he decided to try a new manoeuvre to get behind the opponent's ship. He turned right and then into an collision course with the other ship to turn right behind it again. Unfortunately for him, the other pilot was either not afraid of anything or thinking that he was bluffing, because the sudden change of direction did not interest it the slightest. Instead it was firing all available weapons. In the last second before the impact Poe turned left with what he supposed to be only centimetres between both ships. His bad luck did not end there as he had miscalculated the distance and hit the TIE-Fighter with his wing. Much to his surprise and relief that did not make the ships explode. Instead both ships lost a part of their wings and span of control.

When Poe woke up, he knew by the ache inside his body that he had crashed on the planet. At least he was not dead. The pilot opened his seatbelt and freed himself from the ship which had almost completely lost its left wing and was lying on its left side. Outside he directly noticed by the temperature that he could have chosen a better place to crash on because the wind was rather cold and there was snow below his feet. Standing in the ankle-deep snow he eyed his damaged ship. It would surely be of no use to leave this planet anymore. Poe removed his helmet and felt a slight, warm, stream of blood flowing down his chin. A quick check with his hand classified this to be only a cut. One of several in his face. Apart from that and being sore he seemed to be fine. The resistance pilot turned to have a look at his surroundings. Apart from some rocks on the horizon there was nothing to see apart from an almost endless, snow covered plain with only a few trees on it. And some smoke? He climbed back into his ship to retrieve his binoculars from a side pocket in the X-Wing and have a closer look. Something seemed to be burning around a kilometre away from him. Logic sense told him that it had to be the TIE-fighter which must have crashed on the planet as well. Without thinking he grabbed his blaster from the cockpit and walked through the snow to the other crash site.

The other ship looked even worse than his own and was almost completely reduced to a pile of junk. He had to admit that he was a bit disappointed by the fact the other pilot had been killed by the crash and not by him. The cockpit of the other ship was the only part that looked kind of intact. In that moment curiosity got ahead of him. Poe walked closer to the ship, bending down to look inside through the windscreen. There he could see the First Order fighter pilot, clearly a Special Forces one by its uniform, still strapped to his seat. He was not moving. The resistance member climbed on top of the ship, opened the hatch and looked inside. The pilot was still not moving meaning he was either unconscious or dead. Strangely the pilot was wearing a uniform of the Special Forces, clearly evident by the red markings on its helmet, but the TIE-fighter lacked a second seat. Normally special forced were flying two seater planes with a pilot and a gunner. The plane had the space for a second seat but it seemed it had been taken out. Poe decided not to care and instead do what he intended to do when he had opened the hatch: See the face of that guy that almost beat him. The interior of the TIE-fighter was despite the missing second seat narrow and small. There were pieces of debris and loose wires everywhere and the smoke form the fire was getting thicker. The ship would surely blow up in the nearer future, so he did not have much time. Without further ado he opened the seatbelt of the other pilot, grabbed him and pulled him, surprised about how light he was, out of the ship into the snow.

Nothing in the universe had prepared Poe Dameron with what he saw when he removed the helmet of the Special Forces pilot in a safe distance of the burning ship. "That's impossible.", he stammered, when instead of looking into the face of an older, battle experienced man or some ugly alien life form like he expected, he looked into the unconscious, bleeding face of an auburn haired woman in her late twenties. With freckles all over her pale nose and cheeks she even looked kind of innocent. Not at all like what you would expect to be a ruthless, killing First Order Special Forces member to look like. But if he gave it a second thought, Finn did not look like how you expect a storm trooper to be either. A quick look at her, showed that apart from the head wound, her wrist seemed to be broken, because the angle her left hand had was kind of strange. Additionally blood was seeping through the uniform on her leg into the snow below her, which surely meant another wound to the leg.

He kneeled down, moved her hair out of the way and touched her neck to check for a pulse. As he immediately found one he concluded that she was only unconscious not dead. Poe contemplated for a second whether to leave her here to freeze to death or end her life right now and shoot her. But then the dark haired man swore. Something inside him made him feel strange. Only the force knew why, but he could not bear to leave the woman behind, even if she was the enemy. In this moment, he blamed his upbringing for his hesitation. Even with both of his parents being part of the rebellion that always told him to respect every other life form in the universe, especially if it was either unarmed or unable to defend itself. What the hell was going on with him and First Order officers? First he met Finn now this woman. He was one of the most loyal resistance fighters, so no one would ever question his allegiance, but he was feeling uneasy. He still did not know what he was doing, when he lifted the still unconscious woman up, threw her over his shoulder and left to search for some shelter.

When AN-3527 woke up, she found herself in some kind of cave. Her head, her wrist and her right leg were hurting like hell. She looked down on herself to see her flight overall and trousers had been cut open right to her knee and a flesh wound on her leg had been provisionally bandaged. Same was for her left wrist that had been put in some kind of makeshift shin made of wood and cloth. And the rest of her uniform leg was bound around her head as a bandage. After contemplating her own situation she took in her surroundings. She really was inside a rather big cave. And she was not alone. A dark haired man was sitting next to a small fire a few meters away. The orange flight suit he was wearing directly identified him as a resistance pilot. Logic sense told her, he must be that suicidal maniac in the black X-Wing that made her crash on the planet. And somehow he seemed familiar.

"You're finally awake," he told her,


	2. Episode II - A truce?

Episode II – Truce?

He did not look at her or turn around, instead he continued to hold something into the fire. Judging by the smell it was probably food. She did not respond. Why was she here? Why was she even still alive? "So it's the silent treatment," he told her, turning around to face her. "You could be at least a bit thankful. I saved your life out there." Still she did not reply. Instead she took the opportunity to have a more thorough look at the man in front of her. He seemed to be in his early thirties, of medium height, dark hair, dark eyes and a dashing but mischievous smile she knew some of the female staff aboard her ship would surely love if you gave them a picture of him minus the resistance uniform. The way he sat there showed her he was either very arrogant or quite confident of his skills. Maybe the latter, because she had seen his skills during their fight. Her instinct directly tried to figure out the best possibility to overpower him. He was taller, heavier and surely stronger than her. But she had been dealing with opponents like him in her training. It was only a question of the right technique. Quickly she figured out there were two additional problems. First, she was not in the physical condition to attack him, especially with the pain in her wrist and leg. Secondly, there was a blaster tied to his leg. So she concluded rather fast that, if she could not think of another possibility to unarm him, she was his prisoner.

"Dinner is ready!", got her out of her situation analysis back into reality. She raised an eyebrow towards the man at the fire. What was this about? Poe did not seem the slightest bit bothered by her hesitation and just continued to talk. "You'll have to come here for it. It comes on a stick." AN-3527 did not really walk over to him, but her stomach told her rather quickly it had a different opinion on that. She had not had a decent meal since yesterday and due to this fact was rather hungry. The woman rolled his eyes and got up slowly. The wound on her leg made it almost impossible for her to walk, so she rather stumbled than walked over to the fire and sat down opposite of him. She still hoped to make up a plan while she was eating. Having followed her movements, he then gave a stick to her with some unidentified grilled meat on it. When she hesitated, he smiled again. "Don't worry. If I wanted to kill you, I don't need to poison you. I just could have left you outside to freeze to death." That was a good argument, so she took a bite of it.

At some point she stopped eating because she felt watched. And her instinct had been right. He was watching her, while he was slowly eating his own food. "Is something wrong?", she snapped. The man just laughed. "I was asking myself whether you can actually talk. It seems you can." "There is nothing to talk about between you and me." He replied with an amused chuckle. "Because we are on different sides?" She didn't reply to it. Poe directly knew that this was the point, but decided to pressure it further just because he was bored and did not like the silence. "How are you feeling?" "I'm fine." The resistance pilot knew that was a lie. "That's good. If I had those wounds, I would not be fine. Especially not with that wrist. It looked kind of nasty. But I couldn't fix it," he told her. She did not like the friendliness he showed, because it was unusual and suspicious. If he had been her prisoner, she would not have a little chat with him at the fire and ask about his wellbeing. Instead she would try to extract the needed information from his as soon as possible. "Whatever." The pilot was slowly losing patience. "There is no need to be hostile. I was merely asking for your wellbeing." "Because a dead prisoner is of no use for the resistance?" she snapped. "You should have killed me. I am not giving you any kind of information." The man again started to laugh. "You are not my prisoner." She rose her eyebrows, clearly confused. Poe gave her an honest smile. "I have not really thought about what to do with you… yet."

She snorted. What an imbecile. No one would not take a person with him without any agenda. Like she would believe that. And if he had taken her without a plan, he seemed to be so stupid it was a wonder he was still alive. He took another bite from his dinner. "You are free to go if you like and if you survive outside. Temperature is dropping quite fast since sunset, you know," he told her. AN-3527 looked to the entrance of the cave and knew he was right. During her fall onto the planet she had noticed the planet was covered by snow. It would surely be rather cold. Especially at night. But then she would leave tomorrow at light. She again looked at the other pilot. He had definitely raised her curiosity with his strange behaviour. "Why would you rescue me if I was not your prisoner?", she inquired. "Because I'd rather kill you in a decent fight than having you freeze to death. I love challenges." "You are insane or incredibly stupid", she replied.

Poe grinned. "Maybe I am. I'm Poe Dameron by the way." AN-3527 looked at him confused. So he was that resistance pilot many people at her base had been talking about. That was why he seemed so familiar. "AN-3527," she then replied, not really knowing why she did that. "Why do they always give you those blasted names? Can't they think of a real one?" "This is a real one," she protested. "I am not calling you that," he told her, starting to think about a proper name for her. When he had been sitting with Finn inside that TIE-fighter the name for the stormtrooper had come to his mind directly. But here he found it much more difficult. "Then just don't talk to me, Poe Dameron." "It's Poe." He then beamed at her. "I got one." "What?" "Your name. I'll call you Alex", he told her. "Whatever you like. We don't have to talk about anything. So I don't care what you call me," she replied clearly annoyed. He held out a bottle of water to her. "Oh come on. We are stranded on an ice planet with civilisation probably miles away. If there is even any kind of civilisation..." She took the water from his hands and opened the bottle. "Well, then you are even more insane than I thought. Now not only I will die, but you will do so as well. Not a very honourable death for a resistance fighter to die saving the enemy." Poe Dameron looked at the amused but cold smile she gave him. "Who said we were going to die? I have a plan," he told her. She did not seem to have bought that as she just took another bite from her dinner. "Has somebody ever told you that for a resistance pilot you are a pretty bad liar?" He touched his forehead where still some dried blood notified of the wound that hat yet been untended to and nodded. "If you have better ideas Alex, do not hesitate to tell me." "You wish." With that she slowly got up from her place and limped back to the point where she had woken up earlier.

The next morning AN-3527 was woken up by the bright white light of the sun reflected into the snow outside. During the night, that stupid pilot must have moved her, because she was lying closer to the fire and with that in a different place than the one she fell asleep on. And so far she had no known history of sleepwalking. She thanked the dark lords that that annoying prat was nowhere in sight. Her leg still hurt like hell, but if she wanted to leave, she had to go as long as Poe Dameron was away. Which was immediately.

Walking in the snow was way more difficult and painful than she had imagined. But she had to make it to any kind of outpost if she ever wanted to return to her ship. So she waded on through the knee-deep snow into the nothingness before her. It was cold and windy and she had to rest a lot more often than she had hoped for. "Do you seriously think you can get anywhere in that condition?" a voice asked from behind. She turned to look into the smug face of the resistance pilot standing on a nearby rock looking down to her. "Fuck off", she shouted back. AN-3527 did not expect that her words would have any effect on him and was quite surprised when he turned. "Fine. Go on and die then. You can walk into that direction for hours without finding anything. But whatever. It's not like I cared," he responded. With that he started to walk away on some makeshift snow shoes. "Idiot." She got up and continued her march.

Two kilometres later, she was cursing herself for not listening to the man. He might be on the other side but he had been right. She would never reach any outpost with that injury. Especially as the injury on her leg seemed to be worse than it looked from the outside. AN-3527 sat down in the snow again as she could not walk anymore and started to contemplate whether she should try to head back to the cave. Still cursing the resistance pilot, she started to slowly limp back to the cave.

Poe Dameron knew he should not care what happened to the Special Forces pilot. If he had been able to turn her against the First Order, she surely would have made a nice addition to the Resistance. It had been worth a try, although he had to admit it was rather naïve to think it was that easy. He decided it was better not to think about it anymore and focus on the task at hand. Which was getting off that godforsaken planet. Apart from the one time he had gotten arrested and had been tortured by the First Order, he had never failed a task. So far, the black squad leader had used the day well. He had searched the surroundings for any sign of a nearby settlement, built a pair of snow shoes to make it easier to walk around and already hunted two rather big furry animals with his blaster. Currently, he was skinning his prey to use the meat for dinner and the fur for a blanket against the cold.

When he left the cave to search for some more firewood later on, he noticed something black lying in the snow only a few hundred meters away. Interested but cautious, he took out his blaster and walked over to find AN-3527 lying in the snow staring at the sky with those sparkling green eyes he had noticed when she first looked at him the day before. She noticed his presence, but did not look at him. Instead she continued to look to the sky. "It's not only a flesh wound. I think it's broken," she concluded, trying to avoid him asking why she had come back at all. Poe smiled at her and did not answer. He knew her pride would not let her accept defeat. He just knelt down and helped her stand up to walk her back to the cave in silence. After only a few meters he already lost his patience and before she could protest, lifted her up to carry her bridal style back to the cave.

Inside, he placed her down next to the fire, and threw some more wood into it. "Take off your clothes," he ordered whilst taking off the orange flight suit he was wearing. "What?" AN-3527 asked, clearly confused. He was not really going to do what she suspected him to? She had considered the friendliness he had been showing as strange and suspicious right from the beginning. And it seemed she was right. Now the resistance fighter would show his true character. She should have known that the Resistance people, always bothering everyone with their ideas of "freedom" and "justice" but instead just causing chaos and mayhem in the universe, would also never hesitate to use all known methods to get what they wanted. Poe noticed her hesitation and her glare. Then it clicked in his brain and he started to laugh about his own silly phrase. "Don't get it wrong. Your clothes are soaked from you lying in the snow. If you keep them on, you will freeze as soon when it gets dark. Even inside here." He stepped out of the flight suit, revealing the uniform he was wearing underneath, and handed the orange cloth to her. "Put that on and take one of the furs on your right. It will keep you warm until your clothes dried. I'll go and get some more firewood," he told her and left the cave before she could protest.

When he returned, Alex was sitting close to the fire wearing the orange suit that was too big for her petite frame and covered with both furs, rubbing her hands furiously to warm them up. Poe dropped the firewood in one corner of the cave and sat down opposite of her. "Never thought it would go with that hair-colour, but orange suits you Alex." For that he got a glare from the other pilot. "Shut up." "It was just an observation. No offense." "You definitely talk too much." Poe grinned. "Sometimes I do. Especially when I am bored. You'll have to live with that," he told her. "I could try to gag you." He raised his eyebrows and chuckled. "You can hardly walk. How do you think you'd be able to grab and gag me, Alex?", the pilot asked amused. "Never underestimate the First Order." "Whatever you say," he replied with a smile. "Do you want me to have a look at your leg?" "No. I'm fine." The dark haired man smiled again. "You're a feisty one. You know it will only get worse." "I can deal with that."

Before she could protest, Poe stood up and sat down right next to her, grabbing her injured leg. She winced at the pain from the sudden movement. Deciding that protest was useless, AN-3527 closed her eyes. The resistance pilot nodded and cautiously removed the bandage from her leg to look at it. The flesh wound, probably caused by a small part of debris, at least had not gotten worse. In general it did not look that bad at all, because it was not that deep. So it would surely not be the main cause for her trouble walking. He softly touched her leg and tried to feel if there was a fracture somewhere. "Your leg does not feel broken," he concluded. When she winced the moment he touched her ankle, he found the solution. "I guess you have some torn ligament in the ankle," he told her "I will try to build you something to stabilize it." She opened her eyes. "That is not necessary." „It is," he responded and stood up to get some wood.

He did not expect her to pull him down surprisingly forceful, throwing him on his back below her with a skilled movement. Then she pressed him onto the floor with her own weight. Although her wrist was injured, she even managed to use his surprise as her chance to grab his hands, move them over his head and press them to the floor. She leaned over him with a triumphant smile and looked into his brown eyes. "I told you to never underestimate the First Order." Poe couldn't help but laugh at that situation. He definitely had underestimated her. First because she was injured and secondly because she did not really look like she was any threat to him.

Then he realized that unlike him, she for sure would not hesitate a second to use his blaster once she got hold of it. And the blaster in question was currently tied to his leg and with that in perfectly reachable distance for her. Luckily, she had not yet noticed how close she was to the gun and with that to his certain death. But that could change any second. So he had to distract her. Poe knew that, although she had managed to get him onto the floor, she was still weakened by her injuries. Especially her hand and leg were her weak points. So he decided to move his hands in her firm grip, knowing that at some point holding his hands down would hurt her. He just had to get them into a better position first. He moved his hands within the bounds of possibility and entwined his fingers with hers. She looked down at him confused about what he was doing. Additionally his hands felt surprisingly warm and soft. He gave her a mischievous smile. "So what now Alex?" Poe asked putting on the most irresistible smile he was capable of, softly stroking her fingers with his.

She did not answer and just continued to look at him. In her mind she already was figuring out which way of torturing him would be the best to get that look off his face. If she had been in a better physical condition, he would already be dead. Earlier at the fire she had even been thinking about not killing him, because he seemed to be of use for her. But now she was prepared to dismiss that idea. Before she could put her plan of torturing and then killing him into practice, Poe had finally reached a good angle for his hand and pushed her left hand right into the direction where it had to hurt her. And he had been right. She flinched at the sudden pain and loosened the grip. The pilot used that to free his hands, grab her by the hip to forcefully turn them around, so he was now hovering over the swearing woman. "I could never underestimate you, Alex. I know perfectly well what you are capable of. But you should not underestimate me either. I could do anything I want with you in your current state," he told her with a smug face. Much to his surprise that did not really work as she started to laugh. "So you are not only a bad liar. Your skills in threatening someone are just as bad. Why should I think that you will start with it now? You had several opportunities to do so before and haven't done anything, Poe. Instead you saved me twice," she replied. He smiled at her, let go and got up and went back to the fire. "That's right. Because I think on this planet it's not about the resistance or the First Order, Alex," he then told her when he sat back down at the fire "On this shithole of a planet, there is only you and me." Alex sat up, holding her hurting wrist. "So, here is the deal. We both don't want to stay on this godforsaken planet and return home. So I suggest we make a truce."


	3. Episode III - Agreement

Episode III: Agreement

Alex definitely did not expect that. "A truce?", she asked, trying to make sure she understood him correctly. He nodded and leaned back. "Yeah. You know how this works. You promise not to kill me. I promise not to kill you." "And then?" "Together we figure out a way to leave this planet." She raised her eyebrows, quite surprised about this absurd idea by the look on her face. How did he always get those strange ideas? Yes, they had managed to talk to each other on a quite civilised way. But it never came to her mind to actively work with him on leaving this planet. "You want us to work together?", she asked, still sceptical. "Only temporarily. To be exact, just until the moment we reach a place we can both get home safely from. Then we part our ways and if we ever meet again it will be in a battle," he told her.

AN-3527 thought about it thoroughly. She probably would never be able to leave this planet all by herself. That's why his proposal actually made sense and was useful to her. But she still had some doubts. "Why?", she asked to get rid of the doubts. "Why what?" "Why are you suggesting this? We both know that you don't need me to leave this planet. Why should you voluntarily burden yourself with me, who is of no use for you?" He looked at her and thought about what to reply to that. Of course she was right. He would be able to make it off the planet without her. But the feeling in his gut told him otherwise. "Well, you never know what will happen. Maybe I will need you at some point and would regret it to have left you behind. Additionally, I already told you that this is not the death you deserve. If I kill you, it won't be her and in this manner. It will be in a decent fight. And you can be assured I won't be compassionate at all in this fight," he told her with a serious look on his face. AN-3527 nodded. She couldn't care less about the fact that he would be regretting his actions in the exact moment she and her TIE-fighter would end his life. So his idea sounded acceptable. "Fine. There is only one condition," she told him, "as soon as we have left the planet we never met. You and I, we do not know each other. And no one will ever get to know about this agreement." The dark haired resistance pilot nodded in agreement. "All right. What happens on this planet stays here. And as soon as we part ways we never met." With that, Poe held out his hand to her. She looked down at it and took it without hesitation.

"So, what's next?" she then asked him interested, still rubbing her hurting wrist. "Let me see your wrist", he replied instead of telling her. "It's fine," she protested. Poe smiled innocently and sat down next to her. "Now that we are working together, you can stop lying to me. I know I hurt your wrist with that movement." Then held his hand out to her, waiting for her to put her wrist into his hand. She hated being vulnerable and showing weakness. Her surroundings at the First Ordner did not allow any kind of weakness, because weakness usually meant an early death. And she especially hated having to show weakness when the enemy was around. But on the other hand, he knew already that she was not in her best physical condition and he was probably the only chance she got to get any kind of treatment. She had already tried herself, but she just could not do anything with only one hand. This meant that she had to trust him. Whether she wanted or not. So she put her left wrist into his waiting hand hesitantly. Poe gave her a content nod and started to slowly remove the bandage and the wooden shins. Her wrist definitely looked worse than yesterday, because with his movement he had moved the wood out of the way with his fingers and had pressured on the exact spot where her wrist was broken. The wrist was heavily swollen. Probably, he had moved the broken bones in her wrist and damaged her hand way more severely than he had intended to.

"Sorry. I didn't want to make it worse than it already was. You were just too close to my blaster for my comfort," he mumbled trying some type of excuse. The dark haired resistance fighter expected to be insulted, hit or something worse, but instead she started to laugh. "You damaged my wrist because you were afraid of me?" Poe looked into her green eyes with an insecure smile. "Something like that," he admitted "I feel honoured," she asked clearly amused. The pilot looked down to her wrist and started to scan it with his fingers. "I never doubted the fact that you are not only feisty, but dangerous as well. I just took the necessary safety precautions." The First Order pilot did not seem to resent his doings. Probably, because she would have done the same in a similar situation. She had to admit that it pleased her to know that he seemed to respect her. But it also again showed that he, even though he acted really nicely at the moment, could be serious.

Alex looked down at her wrist. It really looked nasty and she knew that the defective position of her hand that resulted from her broken wrist, had to be corrected. Otherwise her hand would never heal and never be fully usable again. "You have to correct it," she told him matter of factly. "Pardon?" "You need to correct my wrist and get my hand into the correct position. If we don't move it into the correct position now, I will never heal completely and the fight you are looking forward to is off." Poe knew she was right, but shook his head nonetheless. He was no doctor and never tried to claim any kind of medical expertise beside the basics as a skill of his. And with only those basics, he should not act here. "We will get you to a doctor who can straighten it as soon as we can. I'm not a trained doctor. When I do it, I will probably do it wrong and it will hurt too much," he told her. Poe had hoped to convince her with those arguments, but, judging by the look on her face, it did not work out. "Just stop whining and do it. I will survive." The resistance pilot looked down on her wrist and continued to scan it with his hands to figure out which the bone in her wrist got misaligned and with that how to get everything back into position. He knew he should do it as long as she was unprepared for it, so she did not expect the pain and it would be better due to the surprise. "What the hell?", he exclaimed and looked into the other direction of the cave. AN-3527 followed his look and tried to see what he saw in the cave. Poe used her distraction to forcefully grab her wrist and correct the position..

An ear shattering scream echoed through the cave. Alex turned and glared at him with glossy eyes. She never cried, but the pain had made her eyes water without her wanting to. "I thought it would be better if you were not prepared for the pain," Poe told her with an innocent smile. Alex breathed in and out slowly, hoping the pain would fade quickly. "It's okay." He shook his head. "Not really. I have to do it a second time," he said. "You are joking." Him shaking his head again signalized that he was not. Hesitantly she moved her arm back to position. Poe gave her an insecure smile. "This time you will know in advance, which will make it worse," he warned. Alex gritted her teeth. "Just do it, before I reconsider it," she replied and grabbed a nearby piece of wood. The resistance pilot nodded. He really did not want to do his. Just by looking at it, he could imagine the pain. But what could he do? He surely could not refuse to do it. So Poe grabbed her wrist a second time and moved the bone back into its original position.

Much to his surprise, there was no scream but only a pained whimper. "It's done," he told her happily and a bit proud of himself. Strangely, Alex who had turned away from him to not have to look at it, did not turn back towards him and just continued to breathe hard. "Are you okay?", he asked cautiously. "Yeah. Everything okay," she replied, but Poe did not believe her. Something was off, he felt that. So he touched her shoulder softly to turn her around. When he looked at her face, he noticed that she, probably to refrain herself from screaming, had bitten her lip. And she had done it so hard the lip was bleeding. Additionally, he could, much to her discomfort, see some already some half dried tears that had ran down her face. And he had to admit that right in this moment she did not look dangerous at all. If he hadn't known who she was, he would have hugged her. Because he also had to admit it looked kind of cute on her.

Alex quickly raised her right hand to wipe the half dried tears away quickly, but he had seen them anyway. He stopped her hand and smiled. "It's all right," he said and touched her face with his hands to wipe the tears away softly. "I think I would have passed out..." he told her with a wink. The other soldier looked at him confused. The situation appeared weird to her and did not make her comfortable at all. Poe also noticed the strangeness of the situation and reminded himself of who she was. So he pretended nothing had happened, just took her wrist and started to reattach the wooden parts and the cloth. Despite all of her protests, Poe then dedicated himself to build another wooden stabilizer for her ankle and some snow shoes for her, while Alex was preparing the dinner, which again was grilled meat on a stick. Alex thanked every spirit in the universe for the fact he was so busy that for once he was silent

Later at the fire, she was the one to end the silence between them. "So, you told me that you have a plan. How will we leave this planet, Poe?", she asked. He shrugged. "Search for some outpost or settlement on this planet and get us a transport or a ship." "Without any money?", she probed at this plan did not seem to be developed further. "Well. This could be a problem. But I guess we can figure that out later. First we need to find a settlement. I checked the closer surroundings today. There is no sign of anything. I thought maybe the crash site might get some attention by salvagers. But so far, nothing." The other pilot nodded and started to think. "How far is it to the crash site?" "A two hour walk from here. More or less, why?" She rolled her eyes. His aimlessness was worse than expected. "We need to salvage our ships," she told him. "Well, there is not much left of yours to salvage from." "I thought so. But need to have a look at it. If we ever want to leave this cave and not freeze to death outside if we can't find some shelter for the night, we need to build something to carry with us for the emergency. I guess we might be able to find at least some things in the wreckages to use." Poe smiled. She definitely seemed to have more ideas than he had. His usual plan was to just have none and just let everything happen. "You see. I knew you would be useful." "Whatever." "Do you think you can make it so far?", he asked pointing to her leg. This morning she hadn't been able to make one third of the way. "I will," she replied without hesitation. Poe nodded. She definitely was strong minded. But it was a different thing whether her body agreed with that. And he did not want to carry her back again.

They continued to sit in silence in front of the fire while eating. Which Alex considered really odd. Before, it had been difficult to get a minute of silence from him. It was not like she didn't crave the silence. On her ship there was never any, so she loved it whenever she got a minute where there was no talking, shouting, repairing, shooting or whatever. "Is something wrong?" she then asked, breaking the silence. "No. Why?" "Because since yesterday you have never been silent so long." "You told me that I talk too much. Now I don't talk, it's not okay either?" "I'm not complaining. It's just unlike you." "You don't know me." She rolled her eyes. "Fine. From the opinion I was able to make of you during the last two days, I'd say it's odd." Poe smiled. "I just can't think about anything to talk about with you." "Why not?" "Because we have passed the hostility. Your injuries are tended to. We can't start to talk about leaving until we have seen the ships, which is tomorrow. That means we would now have to engage to a nice chat. And I don't think there are many things we can talk about without giving the other useful information." "There are surely some unclassified topics we can talk about." "Like for example?", he asked She looked at him. Alex could not really think about anything right now. So she decided to change the topic "For example the fact you are lying to me right now." He raised his eyebrows. "What?" She got up, took one of the furs with her and walked over to put it around him. "You told me not to lie to you. Same goes for you. You could have told me that you are freezing. You are shivering so hard, I can feel the vibrations on the other side of the fire." "That's not a chat topic," he protested, thankful for the fur she gave him. "But it will satisfy your need for conversation. Move to the other side of the fire. It's warmer there," she instructed him. "That's your space." She rolled her eyes. "I think I will survive to sit next instead of opposite to you. I don't think you have any highly contagious illness. Now move," she again told him and made a gesture for him to go. The resistance pilot got up and sat down on the other side, wrapping himself in the fur. "It's colder than I imagined without my flight suit." Alex went over to her clothes, which she had put close to the fire to dry and felt whether they were still wet. "My clothes are almost dry. Then you can have it back," she told him. "Your leg seems to be better," he then told her with a look at her shinned foot and the fact her movements were more fluent than before. "It is." He then started to laugh. "You know, we still have not managed any kind of normal talk."

She started to laugh as well and sat down. "I guess we just need to accept we are unable of that type of conversation." "Usually I'm not." "I know." The pilot looked at her. "How?" "Come on. It takes someone maybe twenty seconds to see what kind of a man you are. And there are the stories about you." Poe raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued. "Stories?", he inquired interested. She quickly looked away, hoping he would not pressure it further. But that hope was useless. "I shouldn't have said that." "Come on Alex. Tell me what the people in the First Order say about me. That can't be classified if it is gossip." She sighed, annoyed about the fact she now had to say something. Otherwise he would never be silent again. "They say you are the best pilot in the resistance. And that your loyalty is endless." "Well that's nothing new. And no gossip at all." He knew she was trying to avoid answering, but he really wanted to know. "Tell me the rest", he demanded. "Which rest?" "The parts you purposely left out." Alex made an annoyed sound. "Fine. They say that you are quite the handsome charmer that can get anything, that includes getting into anybody's pants, within minutes." Poe was unsure what to think about that for a second, but then he laughed. "They think I am a seducer?" She grinned. "Something like that." "And what do you think about this?", he asked amused. She gave him a confused look. "They are just stories. Stupid gossip. Nothing that I would think about. Because I am not interested in what kind of methods you are said to use." Poe shook his head as a sign he did not believe her at all. "You said it takes someone twenty seconds to notice what kind of man I am. You had more than those twenty seconds. So?" Alex sighed again. She did not really want to have that kind of conversation. By chatting she thought about talking about the weather or something stupid as that. "Come on, tell me," he pressured further, giving her a huff into the side.

"When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was the way you more. You are either arrogant or just confident of your skills. I guess it's the latter. And I guess that confidence is what makes people think you are a charmer that might be using doubtful methods. Maybe you are. Maybe you are not. I don't know you well enough to tell. But I think that in general no one should ever question the methods of someone else. Everybody had their own reason to act in the way they do." When he nodded in acceptance, showing he was content with her answer she felt relieved. Thank god he didn't make her tell him that she thought he was confident of his very handsome self and she had not doubt he could make any man, woman or whatever Poe Dameron preferred, drool on the floor in seconds if he tried. "You know there is a rather attractive price on your head?", she then asked, to change the topic. "Rather attractive? Unless they have risen it significantly in the last three weeks I am still offended by the price." "Last time I saw it, it was 2 million credits." Poe smiled. "Like I said." Alex pulled her fur closer around herself and yawned. "Just keep it in mind once we meet some civilisation. You never know what information they have. And for someone on this planet it's surely a lot of money." Poe nodded. "I will." The resistance pilot looked at the obviously tired woman next to him. He was knackered as well. Maybe sleep was a good idea. "We should get to sleep now." "Yeah. We need to get up at dawn to get everything done." Poe wanted to get up and move back to his side of the fire, but she stopped him by grabbing his wrist. "It's still freezing over there," she told him and pointed to a spot closer to her. He did not protest and moved over to the space closer to her. "You could have told me if you wanted to cuddle," he joked. Alex, who was lying closer to the fire, pulled her fur closer around her, closed her eyes and turned away from him. "Fuck off. I'd rather cuddle with a wampa than with you." Poe laid down and wrapped himself in his fur, which was already starting to smell and grinned. "Good night Alex."


	4. Episode IV - Searching for parts

Episode IV:

A "Wake up sleepyhead, it's almost dawn." combined with the feeling of someone shaking him softly took Poe Dameron out of his dreamless sleep. He opened one eye to look at Alex, already changed back into her own clothes, kneeling next to him. "You are up damn early...," he replied and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. On his opinion the night had been way too short and not very recreative. Especially as the floor was hard and cold. God, he really longed for his own bed on the Resistance base. He was sure that once he was back, he would not get up from it for a whole day. "This floor is not comfortable enough to even consider sleeping on it longer than necessary. And we wanted to leave at dawn. We have a lot of things to do." The dark haired resistance pilot yawned. "I know. So what exactly is the plan for today?" Alex sat down at the fire and wrapped some fur around her leg onto the space where her uniform had the hole Poe hat cut into it to bandage her. "Walk to our ships, search for useful things, bring them here. As we surely won't be able to carry everything at once, I guess we will have to go at least twice," she told him. It seemed she knew perfectly well what they were going to do today. Great, if at least one of them did. "Well then we should get going", Poe said and grabbed the orange flight suit that was lying next to the fire.

Those snow shoes Poe had built for her and the stabilisation of her ankle worked wonders for Alex' abilities to walk. She was still limping, but the movements looked way more fluent than they had the day before. And it was not so painful anymore either. So, the unlikely pair easily reached the crash site of her TIE fighter. Poe had been right. It did not look good. At least the ship had only been on fire and, probably due to the cold, not exploded. But most of it did not really look usable anymore. "What exactly are we trying to build?" Poe asked. Alex stood in front of the ships remains and looked at it thoughtfully, "I'm not sure. I think we need something that can protect us from the cold which can fit us both. And it has to be light and portable," she replied. "Something like a tent?" Poe suggested "For example. But I am not sure whether this will be thick enough to protect us when it gets windy outside. And if we make one that will, it will surely be too heavy to carry around." The Resistance pilot nodded. He had only checked the weather conditions outside after nightfall once for a few minutes and the wind had been really cold.

"And if we build something made of snow? You know, like an igloo." She scratched her chin, thinking about it. "It will take us surely half a day every day to build an igloo that will fit both of us. But I like the idea of using snow. We could build a small wall from snow combining it with something else. Something portable around what we can build a small wall not bigger than what we are able to build in an hour." Poe smiled, delighted about his great idea. "How about a sleigh?" "A sleigh?" she asked, slightly confused. "Yeah. We could build a light structure on a sleigh. We could surely move that around easier, because we can pull it", he suggested. She nodded again. It was a great idea. So far, she had to admit, working with him was going rather well, because both of them had enough ideas which combined made even more sense "But I guess my ship is more likely to offer us a few more usable parts for that," Poe added and made a gesture with his head towards the other ship in the distance.

"We could at least use the rest of the solar panel over there," she then said and walked over to a part of debris sticking in the snow. She gave it a hard kick and the already almost broken off panel fell into the snow. "We should take at least some things from here too. We will see whether we need them later on. But you know what people say: Having something is better than needing something later on."

Poe continued to watch her, as she walked around her ship searching for other useful things she then put on a small pile right behind her. He could neither really figure out the system in which she was searching the ship, nor what most of the parts were for. But she seemed confident, so he decided not to ask about it. "Can you give me a hand?" she then shouted over to him. Poe looked at her standing next to the remains of her cockpit. The upper part looked burnt, but it had not been as bad as he had anticipated the day he pulled her out of the burning ship. The pilot walked over to her. "I don't think there is anything usable left in there." "That's what you think. Help me up, please." Confused at her asking that nicely, he nodded. Then he walked up behind her, cautiously grabbed her hips and lifted her up, so she could climb onto the cockpit. Before he could ask her what we thought she might be finding, she had already slipped inside the ship. From the outside, he couldn't see what she was doing in there. He could only hear her scrummaging through the things, swearing loudly about the state of her ship. Poe could perfectly understand her anger. He had felt the same when he first saw his X-Wing after the crash. Somehow you got attached to your own ship over the time and it hurts you to see it being damaged. Although it was only an object, for a pilot that object was everything.

The minutes passed on and he was asking himself what the hell she was doing inside. Suddenly her head appeared through the hatch again. "Can you take something from me?" she asked. Poe nodded, although he was questioning himself what she had found inside. One by one she then passed some parts to him. Much to his surprise, it included an almost completely intact bag and two slightly bent metal boxes. The resistance pilot just wanted to crouch down to have a closer look at it, when Alex slid out of the ship and asked him to help her down from the ship. Which of course he did. "Told you I'd find something. Now let's look at your ship," she told him and grabbed the bag, the boxes and several of the pieces she had thrown on her pile. Poe grabbed the rest and followed her. It was already a lot to carry and he still had no idea what to do with all the stuff. But the enthusiasm she showed today baffled him. She looked like she was in her element. And he had always thought the First Order only educated them for their designated role, not being able to do anything else. It seemed like he had been wrong about that.

Standing in front of the X-Wing, Alex put her arms to her sides and eyed the ship interested. "Never seen one of those from this close?" Poe asked with a smile. "No. Only in battle. Same as you with the TIE-fighter, I guess." He laughed and shook his head. "No. I've even flown one of yours." She turned to face him. That definitely got her intrigued. "You?" "But it was a two seater." Alex raised her eyebrows, asking herself how he had gotten into a Special Forces TIE-fighter. Poe noticed the confusion but did not really understand why. "Oh come on. By what you told me about your gossiping in the First Order, I can't imagine that you don't know the story of how I fled the First Order with Finn in that TIE-fighter." She shook her head and by the look on her face he knew she was not lying. Seems like the First Order had done a fine job hiding that unpleasant day for them. "Well, at least I found something I can tell you about later on."

She turned towards the ship again and continued to eye it. It looked interesting and like much fun to fly. Alex caught herself desperately wanting to fly one of those just for fun reasons and to try how it worked. She had never been able to withstand anything with wings and an engine. Poe noticed her interest in his ship and he could perfectly understand.

"I think, here are a lot of things we could use. If we for example manage to remove the hatch that would make a perfect roof", she suggested. Poe looked at her and noticed she had somehow managed to climb atop of the crashed ship. "Are the engines still working?" she asked. Poe walked around the ship and had a look at it. "Two of the engines are completely unusable. The others are damaged as well. But we might be able to get one of them running." "Then maybe we could use one of the engines to make our sleigh move. It would surely not be really fast, but faster than walking and easier than pulling it around." "Don't you think it will be complicated to get all those parts to our cave?" She sat down on cockpit. "Yeah. We can take some essential parts we need for prebuilding to the cave, but we have to assemble it here," she agreed. Poe leaned onto the side of his ship. "And without the necessary tools…," he added. But that did not seem to demotivate her. "We will be fine," she told him, climbed onto the wing and started to remove some loose parts with her hands. Poe took that as a sign to start searching for some usable things as well.

Several hours laterm their pile of stuff had grown significally, so both of them decided to start carrying stuff over to the cave. As is was too much for both of them, Poe then returned to the ships again to get the rest, while Alex was given the task of finding them dinner and more wood for fire and their sleigh.

The resistance pilot had spent the last two hours of walking back to the cave thinking about the fact that he should have given her his blaster to hunt for food. She would probably never be able to get anything without a weapon. Alex hadn't asked and he hadn't thought about it before. It had only come to his mind when he had been already at the crash site and with that way too late for him to do anything about it. It seemed like they were going to starve today. His stomach already told him with a loud grumble that it disliked this fact. The sun was already setting, so there was no way that he was able to get something unless it directly threw itself right into its way.

Much to his surprise, he was welcomed by the smell of something cooking over the fire. He placed the rest of the parts on the pile with the others and walked over to Alex, sitting next to a large branch, cutting it in form with a knife. Where the hell did she get that from? He checked his boot, where his own knife was still safely attached. "And I have been worrying all the way back here about not getting any dinner…," he told her and sat down next to her. "Are you underestimating me again, Poe?" she asked, clearly amused. He grinned. "Seems I that was. I didn't expect you to find a knife in your burnt ship and to kill some poor deer without a blaster." Whatever was just cooking over the fire was definitely smaller than the animal he had hunted the day before and he had no idea what it was. But that did not really bother him, because he hadn't known either what kind of animal he had killed the day before. He decided was better not to know if it looked eatable.

"You could have given me yours," she said without looking up from the branch she was cutting. "I know. Don't think it was something about lacking trust. Surprisingly I would not have hesitated to give it to you although we are on different sides. I just didn't think about it," he replied, trying some kind of apology. Luckily, Alex did not seem to mind and was not taking this personally. "All right. Anyway, who said I don't have a blaster?", she added with a grin. "Because I still have mine." The First Order pilot looked straight into his brown eyes. "So what? I didn't have a knife until noon, did I?" she told him and took out a small, still shiny blaster.

The resistance pilot thought for a second about whether she would use the weapon against him. Until now, she did have a reason to agree to their plan of leaving together, because he had the advantage of a weapon. Now they were even and she didn't have to care for their agreement anymore. She noticed his hesitation. "Don't worry. I am one of those people who tend to keep their promises. No matter to whom."

"Well then. Any more interesting findings in your ships I should know about?" he asked to change the topic. Alex put the knife aside, took the two metal boxes and the bag and placed them between them. "In my TIE-fighter there is a small chamber right below the spot where the second seat used to be. Because of its position in the floor, it's rather fireproof and safe. So I use to store some basic stuff for emergencies in my ship," she said with a nod to the boxes. Poe shook his head. She was full of surprises. "What kind of basic stuff?" "First aid kit with a small food supply. But it' just enough for a couple of days," she replied, pointing with her finger to one of the boxes. "And a basic tool kit for slight emergency repairs. But before you get carried away. It does not include a welder," she added, pointing to the other box. "Gods, you are brilliant!" She shrugged "I just prefer to be prepared." "And the bag?" "My spare blaster and some clothes to be able to blend in. But they are not made for this type of temperatures, even though I believe have a scarf I could lend you," she told him with a twinkle. Poe returned the smile and took the box with the tools. She had been right about its contents, because it really contained a small set of tools they could use to assemble their sleigh and scavenge the ships. He then took out his knife and sat down on the opposite end of the branch to help her carve it.

"So, tell me about you in that TIE-fighter," she asked at some point. Poe slightly bit on his lip. "I can't believe they managed to hide that. Am I even allowed to tell you?" "Why shouldn't you?" she asked. "Because if they put all the effort into hiding it, trying to make sure no one – like for example you – finds out, maybe you shouldn't know. I don't want to cause trouble." Alex gave him a sceptic look. "Like that would stop you from telling me. If you can tell me something that makes the First Order look bad, you are surely thrilled to tell me." Poe smiled. "True."

Poe thought about how much he could tell her. He should leave out the story around the map to Luke Skywalker for safety reasons, he concluded quite fast. Even though the First Order knew they had the complete map, he should not give them more information on the issue. Who knew whether Alex would tell one of her superiors about it one she was back. "It started with me getting caught and imprisoned on the Finalizer. I won't go into details on how and why. But by imprisoned I am talking about being chained to a fucking chair, beaten by your guys and interrogated by Kylo Ren himself." Already when the words had left his mouth he regretted saying them. Because it was not important for his story. "You probably deserved that," she replied without looking up. He knew he should not be surprised about her reaction, but he could not deny to be slightly offended. Probably she wasn't even to blame for it, because it was something they had taught her already as a child. Trying to avoid an escalation, he decided it was better not to start a discussion about the sense and dubiousness of torturing prisoners and swallowed his reply. "Whatever," he started a sentence.

Alex looked at him "What? You are not going to challenge me in that? No try to lecture me? I always thought you resistance-fighters were so much about, what is it you call it, integrity?" Poe glared at her. "We are. But I don't think it would make any sense discussing it with you," he replied. But she did not want to leave it at this. "Why?" Poe noticed his well-kept temper leaving him. "Because when it comes to such things, we live in different worlds," he started and could not refrain from starting a rant. "You probably have never seen with your own eyes or experienced what the First Order does. You have always been on the right side and never been the one they wanted something from. Additionally, I don't think you would be able to distinguish right from wrong in this case. Or whatever you consider right and wrong is completely different from my view. I guess, I can't even blame you for that, because you don't know it differently. You have never seen the universe with your own eyes and had your own thoughts about it, you have only seen and known what they allowed you to see or know. I guess you haven't ever thought whether there might be more out there than the First Order. You have most likely been with them since you were a child. I suspect that you don't even know which planet you are from or who your parents were."


	5. Episode V - Talk at the fire

Heaven's falling

Episode V: Talk at the fire

Although it had only taken her seconds to put up her indifferent face again, Poe had noticed by her reaction that he had made a point with that statement. "No, I don't. But I don't care about it," she told him, turned around and continued to work. Poe wanted to continue telling the story of him and Finn, but a look at the auburn haired woman showed him that, with his speech, he had damaged whatever friendliness had existed during the last days. Deciding not to pressure it further, he continued to work in silence instead.

At some point, their silence was disturbed by the smell of something burning creeping through the cave they temporarily called home. "What is that smell? Is there something...?" Poe started a sentence, which made both of them look to the fire. A small stick seemed to have fallen down from the fire right onto one of the furs lying nearby to dry. Because of that, the fur in question was slowly burning down, smouldering and stinking badly.

The resistance pilot was the faster one to stand up. He walked over to the fire quickly and extinguished the flames with his boot. He then eyed the half burned off fur critically. If you cut off the burned parts, it was maybe still usable to warm feet or as a scarf. But did definitely not looked like it was able to work as a blanket as it had the night before. The pilot looked over to the woman. "Seems like tonight we indeed have to cuddle, because now we only have one fur left as a blanket. Which is mine, by the way," he told her slightly amused while holding up the rest of the fur. The other pilot shot him a deadly glare and snorted. "Fuck off. I have my spare clothes. And even if I not, I'd rather freeze to death than sharing the fur with you," she replied in an annoyed tone.

Poe sat down opposite of the fire, smirking about her tone. He did not expect it to be so easy to provoke her. The First Order soldiers he had met before never got emotional in any way and did not care about anything. But it seemed he had found an example that was different. It was nothing to be amused about, but he couldn't help himself to be. "So we are back to hostility?" he asked amused. Alex turned her back towards him again and continued to carve the wood. "You decided that," she responded without turning. "Oh come on Alex. You had your part in provoking that. Let's not make this more difficult than it already is," he demanded in a friendly tone. His counterpart still did not turn and continued to work. "Like I could make it any more difficult. According to you, I am similar to a droid and don't think about anything I am not programmed for," she replied, trying to make it sound indifferently. But the resistance fighter knew on instance that this was not the case just by looking how she treated that branch below her.

"I didn't mean it like that," he said, hoping to pour oil on troubled water. "How did you mean it then?" she asked, still annoyed and turned to look at him. Poe gave her a sincere smile and scratched his head. "I just talked myself into a rage. When I do that, I don't really think about what I am saying. Yes, I do believe there are things about the universe you don't know. I just should have said it in a less drastic way. You are not a droid. It's even the opposite. You have already proven to be able to do many more things than I expected from you. And the last thing was just something that came into my mind. My friend Finn, the one I stole the TIE-fighter with, has been a stormtrooper before we met. He told me that he doesn't know his family. I shouldn't have used that." "Whatever," she replied and turned back again.

But Poe did not give up so easily. "Listen, there are some topics we better avoid. In some points our opinions on are contrary. It would only end badly, if we talk about those things. That's what I wanted to do in the first place, before you decided to pressure it further. It's also what I should have done. I promise I won't bring it up again, okay?" Alex took put her knife back to her boot, watching her finished work on one of the skids. To be honest, she only did that for a simple reason: To get time. Exactly the amount of time she needed to think about it.

It was not like he had been completely wrong about the First Order dominating her life. But on her opinion, it was not because they wanted to keep secrets from her or control her. The just filtered, correctly, the unimportant stuff from the important. She trusted the First Order and the information they gave her. For the Resistance, who just by definition had to consider everything the First Order did as something bad, that would maybe qualify as paternalism, pretending she was unable to think herself and never question anything the First Order told her. Of course she was able to do that, but she never saw any reason to do so. The only point that disturbed her was the thing about her parents. That was something deep down inside her he had hit by saying that. The First Order surely had good reasons for not telling her and the others where they came from, but she did not really understand them. She had to admit that in some nights, she had asked herself how she had gotten into this world and why her parents had given her to the First Order.

He was also right about the avoiding of certain topics. In many points Poe and she were completely different. Alex had not expected it to be easy to work with him on their escape from this ice cube of a planet, but until now, contrary to her expectations, it had worked quite well. Of course she could try to leave on her own now by leaving him behind or killing him. That just did not make any sense as she would not gain anything from it. It might be better to just swallow all the words she wanted to say. The moment they had successfully left this planet she would never have to think about it again. "I guess since we have to work together we should leave it at that."

Do you still want to hear the rest of the story?" Poe asked later when they were sitting next to each other at the fire, eating. She took a bite from her dinner. "You've already spoilt it. You stole it with your stormtrooper friend." He bit his lip, quite disappointed. "I did, didn't I? That's how I met him. He needed a pilot and found me."

She didn't understand how somebody could betray the First Order like the unknown stormtrooper called Finn. Especially not considering what they did for their soldiers and for their goal of making it a better universe. Yes, the training was hard and tiring, but they were never treated badly. Alex knew the resistance was telling stories about them being punished inhumanly for not doing well. Sometimes they were punished indeed, but she did not see anything inhuman in that as everyone had the possibility to avoid it by just doing their job. And if they were punished, there was always a good reason for it. It was not understandable for her how somebody could want to leave that secure and structured life they had. Although there was the possibility to die honourably in battle, this was surely better than for example living on this shithole of a planet.

"I was quite surprised about how well they fly," he then told her She raised an eyebrow on that. Poe smiled innocently. "I had suspected less. I have to admit, I liked flying that thing. It's quite agile and fast. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out all the controls in time." "Why not?" He smiled and bit his lip. "I crashed it." That's when she started to laugh. "You crashed it? Didn't they say that you are supposed to be the best pilot of the resistance?" she told him with a chuckle. "I'd like to see you flying an X-Wing, having never flown it before, being shot at and with a gunner that never had been sitting inside one of your TIE Fighters either," he replied, slightly hurt in his pride.

"Why were you flying in a single seated one anyway?" Poe then asked to change the topic. "Or is that classified?" "Why do you ask?" "Because your uniform says you are a Special Forces pilot, but the TIE-fighters Special Forces have two seats, don't they? Yours only had one," he told her. "Well observed. Mine used to be a two seater before, but the second seat has been removed as I don't have a gunner." "Died?" "No. I just don't have one." "They allow that?" "When your results show you're better off or similar without one, yeah. Additionally, I had the small problem of finding someone that could handle my style of flying without getting sick inside the fighter. So they decided to move the weapon controls and allow me to shoot myself." Poe laughed. "Wouldn't it be easier to take a single seater instead?" "The reason for that is confidential." He nodded. "Didn't expect that, did you?" she asked He shook his head. "Not really."

Poe then looked at her with a grin. "You are sure you don't want to cuddle?" She glared at him again. "I already told you to fuck off," she responded. "I know. But now I can see from here that you are freezing," he told her. "I'm fine." Poe looked at her and could already see by her shivering fingers that she was lying. "You're not. As far as I see it from here, you have three options. Freeze to death is, although you claimed otherwise, surely is none worth thinking about. The second one is to stay where you are, which will work for another hour or so before you reconsider your decision. Or you can just spare both of us the trouble and you the misery of asking me later and come here right away. I won't bite." She sighed, knowing he was right about it. Her spare clothes were short sleeved and with that not made for this kind of temperatures. Putting them under or over her actual clothes would not have much effect.

Reluctantly she nodded. "Fine. But I warn you. Don't try anything strange." The resistance pilot shook his head. He was not blind, so he had noticed that she was rather attractive. Poe also had to admit she was kind of cute, but the fact that she was a First Order soldier made her an absolute No-Go. "Contrary to what your people say about me, I am quite picky. And honourable… most of the times at least," he told her amused and showed her with a movement of his hands where she should sit down so he could put the fur around both of them. She followed his instructions and sat down right in front of him. Not content with the way and the distance of her sitting, she felt his hands touch her by her hip cautiously and pull backwards closer to him until she was sitting in between his bent legs. She wanted to protest and remind him of what he said, but then she understood that otherwise the fur would not be long enough to go around both of them. He let go of her hips and placed the fur around her shoulders and over her legs.

"Better?" he then asked. The closeness to the enemy and especially to him made her uncomfortable, although it was definitely warming her up. So she preferred to stay silent. He on the other hand did not seem to be uncomfortable at all. "I'm sorry about the smell." She turned her head to look at him. Poe gave her a cute smile. "You said you'd rather cuddle with a wampa. It's quite possible I smell like one by now." Alex started to laugh imagining one of the hairy animals in his bright orange flight suit. The resistance pilot looked at her. Smiling suited her more than the serious face she was usually wearing.

"Don't worry, it's not that bad yet. Even if it was, I guess I won't smell better. Once I'm back, I will have the longest shower ever registered in the universe." He nodded. "I think I will have to be soaking in the bathtub for minimum an hour to lose the stench," he confirmed. "Do you even have a bathtub in the resistance?" He grinned. "Maybe…" She raised an eyebrow at that. "I don't know what you expect our infrastructure to be, but we are not camping in caves without electricity and sanitary facilities like you and I are doing now" "If you say so…" "I'd give you a tour, but we both know I'd have to kill you afterwards," he said and started to think about the base he called home. He missed the crowds running around, his bed, the food, BB-8 and his comrades. "You know, I would offer to give you are tour, but we both know that I will have to kill you afterwards," he continued.

"You on the other hand are surely already familiar with our infrastructure." Alex already regretted saying that after the words left her mouth. They had agreed on ignoring that topic and she had brought it up again. Thankfully he just grinned. "Not really. You know, being tied to a chair doesn't enable you to see much of it. But next time, I'll make sure to ask Kylo Ren to give me a tour," he replied with a twinkle. "I shouldn't have brought that up again, sorry," she apologized. "No problem. I think we still have to get used to avoiding certain topics."

Several minutes of silence later, Poe decided he had to bring something up again or the situation of them near the crackling fire, sharing a fur would be too awkward. Especially as he had no idea where to put his hands. Until now he had put them on his knees, but that was a bit uncomfortable. "Tell me something about yourself, Alex" he then said. "So you really want to try some light chat?" "Why not?" "Well, because maybe you should try a different topic. I don't think there is much to tell about me…" she told him. He smiled at her again. "Come on. There must be something you can tell me about you." "You know my real name, which you are consequently not using, the fact that I am a Special Forces pilot and have no idea which planet I am from or who my parents were. Is there anything else for you to know?" she asked. "Where do you live?" She raised an eyebrow and glared at him. "Nice try. The name and location of my base is as classified as yours." He grinned. "I was worth a try." "Didn't we promise not to ask about classified things?" "We did. I just couldn't help it. Won't happen again."

"When is your birthday?" he then asked to make her tell him at least something. She shrugged. "I don't know." "You don't know when your birthday is?!" "Not the exact date. The official counting starts the day I was registered in the First Order. But you know it's kind of rude to ask a woman about her age?" she asked amused. "Is it? I always thought women tend to be flattered if you guess them younger than they are," he replied. "Do you always do that?" "What?" "Lie to women about how old you guess them to be just to flatter them?" He bit his lip and nodded. "Sometimes…Depends on whether I need her to have a favourable opinion about me. By the way, I'd estimate you to about 25…" he told her. So there was the charming man people were talking about again. She was confident that he knew exactly what he was doing when he talked to women. "Charming… You want me to have a favourable opinion about you?" she inquired. "No. In your case I just want to survive this conversation," he told her with a smile. "And what if I don't care how old I am?" "I'd still estimate you to be somewhere under 30…" "27…" she admitted. "You see? I was not that far off then."

"And since when have you been flying?" he continued to again change the topic and keep her in the relaxed state he noticed she was getting into. She was not sitting in front of him like someone put a stick up her arse anymore. "Since I was nine, why?", she wanted to know. "I'm just curious. I've seen you up there. It was insane." "Shall I take this as a compliment?" "You can." "You know, actually I was supposed to become a mechanic." The resistance pilot looked at her surprised. "You're joking…" She smiled and unintentionally leaned back a bit, what encouraged Poe to move his hands from his knees and put them on her sides. "No. I was re-evaluated when I was nine after I sneaked into the flight simulator three times…" she admitted. He laughed. "My teachers did not actually consider it that funny. After several hours of reconditioning they put me in I did not do so either. But in the end I got what I wanted. The possibility to take the pilots test. I don't want to know what would have happened if I had failed that it. They were not amused, but the results spoke for themselves. And the First Order does not object to its own data.

For the resistance it would have been something good if she had stayed just a mechanic. But the part of Poe that liked challenges thought it would have been a waste. "Why did you do it?" he asked curiously. It was quite uncommon on his opinion that someone inside the First Order dared to question his designated role. "What? Sneak into the simulator?" He nodded as a sign that he was talking about this. Alex smirked. "I guess because I have always been addicted to everything that flies. I always knew that all I ever wanted was to fly one of those beautiful things and not only to repair the engines a thousand times," she told him. That was something Poe could comprehend completely. He could not imagine a life as a mechanic either. "You know, in some points I guess we are not so different at all", he replied and pulled the fur closer around them.


	6. Episode VI - Searching for Alex

Heaven's falling

Episode VI: Searching for Alex

Despite the fact that she was his enemy, she seemed to have the same pilot DNA he had. Her story made Poe lose himself in thoughts. He remembered his mother teaching him to fly. When he was a small boy he had been sitting on her lap, flying the small plane she had gotten as kind of a good bye gift from the rebellion together. It was no comparison to the X-Wing he was flying in the present, but it had been something special nonetheless. Like a second home. Already at that point Poe had started to love the feeling of freedom when he was flying and always looked up to the stars. He had known at that very early point in his life that there would not be anything out there for him to do other than being a pilot. After his mother died unexpectedly when he was just eight years old, the small plane she had owned had been his place to remember her. Poe knew it would make her proud if he followed her footsteps and become a pilot, defending the dream of a republic his parents had fought so hard for.

It was Alex voice that got him back into reality. "I think most of the pilots had some things in common," she told him pensively. "And I always thought the tests in the First Order were only about what someone is good at, not considering the fact whether you like it or not. An example is that idea of you becoming a mechanic." He really could not imagine the First Order being only half as good as she claimed it to be, but she was surely seeing this whole thing with those pink glasses the First Order had put on her when she was a child. Pink glasses which existence she surely was not even aware of. "The First Order does know as well that your results are influenced by whether you want and like to do what you are supposed to be doing. Contrary to what you think of us, none is threatened to get inside a TIE-fighter with a blaster pressed in his back. We get in because it is the right thing to do."

Poe opened his mouth to reply something, but decided otherwise as he did not want to bring up that topic again and let her continue. "Maybe some of us wanted to become something else, but it's not like there isn't a single pilot doing it because he or she loves to fly." Just to keep the peace intact, he nodded. "Fine. You convinced me. It does not matter which side we are on, we pilots are a family of positively insane people," he told her with a grin.

Alex looked at him, clearly amused. "I guess that is all there is to tell you about me. Now it's your turn." The Resistance pilot thought about it for a second and softly blew away an auburn coloured strain of her hair that was itching his nose. Alex shuddered at the sudden blow of air in her neck. "Is there even something you lot do not know about me? You are even gossiping about me, which suggests that you have sufficient information to get an impression about me", he told her with another grin.

The other pilot looked at him in a serious face. "You know that gossiping does not require information. You just invent whatever you don't know. In your case, it seems to be enough to know you are the Resistance's best pilot, loyal and charming. I guess our database does have some additional information, like where you are from and how old you are, but I did not read your file that thoroughly. Usually, I have better things to do than searching our databases for specific people from the Resistance," she replied. "But you were able to remember the gossip?" he asked. Alex just shrugged. "You know as well as I do that things you don't want to remember are the things you remember the easiest," she admitted. Poe nodded. Everyone knew about that. „33, Yavin IV," he told her. She gave him a questioning look. „I am 33. And Yavin IV is my home planet, or at least the planet I grew up on and lived until I became a pilot for the republic," he said to answer her questions. Alex raised an eyebrow, what made him chuckle. "You really did not read it, did you?" Poe asked. As a reply Alex shook her head, so he continued. "Yes, before joining the resistance I have been a pilot for the republic."

She did not really know why but it raised her interest. Wasn't the new republic the thing the whole rebellion had always dreamt about? Didn't they achieve their goal when they put the galaxy into the unstructured, anarchical chaos it was today? Why should you leave the republic for the Resistance, then? Wouldn't you be betraying the republic you have dreamt about with that? Sometimes her curiosity just got ahead of her and she disliked that feeling. Until nowm she had mostly been able to ignore those things, In the First Order if was safer to not ask questions when it was not absolutely necessary. Especially if the question you had in mind would be asked only to satisfy your own curiosity. But there was no one around to blame her for depart from standard procedures, so she asked anyway.

„I know we agreed not to talk about it, but I'd like to know why," she told him hesitantly. Much to her own surprise he answered without any kind of hesitation. "On my opinion it was the right choice. My parents were both rebels and raised me with the strong belief that the universe needs the republic. Unfortunately that republic went too easy on you. Maybe because some people in the universe still don't want to decide on their own. If you are governed by an Imperium, you never have to really think about anything and face the consequences of your own choices, because you don't have many. And you can always blame someone else if anything goes wrong. I believe that every species in this universe deserves the right to make their own choices, to live the way they want to, think what they want to think and do what they want to do. It's not fair if everyone has to suffer from some people's inability to face the outcome of what they decide."

Her silence clearly showed him that she was thinking about whether and what to say about that. Especially as she had asked, she surely wanted to say at least something, so it would not seem awkward. But she seemed to be struggling, so Poe just smiled at her and removed a strain of hair from her face. "You don't have to say anything. We'll just keep it at that. I know you disagree, but we should try to keep this in the easy way, all right?" She nodded. "Your parents must be proud of you", Alex said, for what he gave her an insecure smile.

"My mother died when I was eight years old. My father recently died." Alex opened her mouth to mutter some kind of apology to that mishap, but he shook his head. "I think they would be. Well, maybe not if they knew about this situation and who I am sharing my fur with," he joked.

"Another reason why no one should ever find out that we met," she replied. "True. But don't they do those tests on you?" he inquired. "Which tests?" "How do they call it? Conformity?" She nodded. „They do. But the mere fact of us sitting here does not change anything in my beliefs and the fact that someday I will personally send you to the next dimension. So there is no need to worry about that," Alex said and even managed to obscure her own doubts more easily than she thought. To be honest she had no idea what the First Order would say about the fact she did not kill him on instance. And she had also no idea what her superiors would do if they ever found out that she voluntarily spent time with Poe. But it would work out… somehow.

To be safe from this topic, she decided to bring up something else. "I think we should start thinking about how we are going to sleep." Poe looked at her. "Is there anything unclear about that? We both fit under the fur and I still don't bite. Yesterday we had two blankets and slept an arm's length apart. Today it's one blanket and less distance. Tomorrow we will try to find a new fur. Maybe even two." "So I will go to our ships alone?" He smiled. „You are a big girl. I'll probably only be in your way. I'd say I will join you later on to help you carry your stuff back here." „All right."

Poe nodded and made a gesture for her to move to her usual sleeping spot. The First Order pilot removed the fur from her shoulders and did as she was told. Then she turned to her side, looking into the fire. Poe followed her, lying down next to her. Afterwards, he cautiously put the fur over them and turned so he was now lying behind her. "What are you doing?" she asked when he put his right arm around her. Poe raised his head and looked at her questioningly. "I am using the available space in an optimal way, what else? The only other position that would fit us both under it is one both of us won't like very much." "I am talking about your arm." "Where should I put it instead? I think it will bother you even more when I put it right next to your butt." That argument was good. "Good night Poe."

When Poe woke up the next morning, he directly asked himself whether he had overslept. His second thought was about the fact that the woman lying beside him in the evening was gone. A quick look into the corner where she had put her snow shoes the day before told him that Alex was out. Poe searched for his blaster and sighed relieved when he found it still attached to its usual place. The resistance pilot sat up and had a look around. There was no sign of her. He could not imagine her going out without saying something, but the signs were clear.

Poe slowly got up and walked over to the entrance of their cave. In comparison to the days before, there was no sun shining down onto the endless, snow covered planet. Instead, it was snowing so heavily he could not see anything. As a first measure he tried shouting her name, hoping for a reply, but apart from the echo of his voice there was none. He went inside to search for his quadnocs. But even with those, he could not see her. So she must have left already way earlier.

In this heavy snowfall she would never find the way back, he concluded and swore. This woman was driving him insane and caused trouble for three. How could he have thought that it would be easy in just one simple thing? The First Order caused trouble and she was no exception. Grumbling, he went back inside. Poe knew he should sit down, wait for the snowfall to die down, go on with his daily tasks and not care about whether she came back. Sometimes he hated himself, because he had never been able to do that. Poe swore again, took his fur and went outside to search for her.

Meanwhile, Alex was walking through the snow, searching for firewood. She had already noticed after getting up that it made no sense to walk to their ships. In the heavy snowfall she would not be able to do anything useful there and it would be difficult to find the way there and back. As Poe was still sleeping, she decided to go out by herself. Alex had to admit that there was another reason behind that as well. She needed time for herself. Time to think. Time away from the other pilot, who appeared way too nice to be considered an enemy.

When she had woken up, he had still been lying beside her in the same position. Only his grip around her had tightened and his head had slightly turned towards hers. To her own discontent she noticed that despite the fact the floor was still hard as hell she had actually slept rather well. It had been comfortable to have a second source for warmth beside the fur and although he told her he smelled like a wampa, he absolutely did not. But that made her even more uneasy, because physical closeness was, apart from sharing a bed with someone for a few hours and for other activities, really nothing she was comfortable with. It did not make sense to her and she considered it to be sentimental rubbish which was just distracting you from your task. She disliked the fact that she had been surprisingly comfortable in his arm and she needed to distract her from that to refocus.

The bag she was using to collect sticks of woods was already full and telling her to return to the cave whether she wanted to or not. She hoped that the Resistance's sleepyhead was still not awake so she would be able to leave unnoticed again to go hunting. Outside it was cold and windy and she was missing a warming fur, but it was better than sitting in the cave facing Poe Dameron.

By now, Poe was convinced it had been a bad idea to search for her. He had been walking for an hour and knew that just by the fact she was still walking slow due to her injuries he must have caught her by now. She would never have been able to get that much of a head start. The pilot took a look around and wondered about an interesting looking tree on his right side. He had seen that one before today, which meant he apparently made a wrong turn and was walking around in circles. He turned around and grabbed his quadnocs again. Nothing to see. Swearing, he realised he was lost.

When Alex arrived back in the cave, it was empty. She put the wood to its usual place and sat down at the fire to warm up her hands. The fact that Poe was not there did not bother her much. He was probably outside in the proximities of the cave to relieve himself. She did not see him outside, but that did not have to mean anything. About half an hour later, she started to consider it strange that he had not returned. A part of Alex wanted to be happy about the unexpected silence, but something was bothering her. She looked down onto the wrist and foot Poe had bandaged and swore.

Poe was sure the snowfall had either intensified or he started to get snow blind. He tried everything to make out the known rocks in which the cave was located, but so far without success. It was just a sea of snowflakes. He had already wrapped himself in his fur, because due to the wind he had started to freeze quite fast. Poe knew he would not last long if he did not find shelter quite fast. At some point, he was able to make out a hill with his quadnocs, but when he was standing on it, his hopes had been for nothing. Poe sighed. He should not have followed the woman and should for once not have cared. He was not able to end this thought as in this moment a hairy, white animal, of about 1.5 m height, attacked him and wrestled him to the ground.

With a skilled movement he was able to soften the fall, turn and avoid the sharp teeth snapping at him. Somehow, Poe managed to kick the animal down and jumped to his feet. Unfortunately, his snow shoes entwined in that movement and he lost the balance, falling back into the snow on his back. Before he was able to reach for his blaster, the animal was attacking again, but in the middle of the jump it twitched and lifelessly fell down on him. Poe groaned under the weight of the furry thing lying on him, making it impossible for him to move. He then turned his head to make out the reason for the animal's sudden death.

Alex was standing a few meters away, attaching her blaster back to her leg. "Seems like the score is two one now", she told him with a grin.


	7. Episode VII - Snowball fight

Heaven's falling

Episode VII: Snowball fight

Poe leaned back into the snow and took a deep breath. So far, he had probably never been happy to see somebody from the First Order, but today he definitely was. Alex walked over to him, assisting him in moving the cadaver of the animal down into the snow, then she held out her hand to help him up. Poe took the outstretched hand without hesitation and got up. "Everything okay?"

The resistance pilot did not answer. He just pulled her over to him and hugged her. "Thank you," Poe whispered into her ear. Alex was so flabbergasted about him hugging her, she was unable to say anything or move. She tried to remember the last time anyone had hugged her outside a bed, but could not recall any similar situation no matter how far back she went. That did not really amaze her, because this type of physical closeness generally did not exist in the First Order. Even though she had to admit that it was a rather comfortable feeling. But it was unnecessary. If you ever thanked somebody, which alone was a strange and uncommon thing to do as you were just doing your job and no one had to thank you for that, you did so with words. Maybe you even got an extra morning off duty, but you never hugged someone as a gesture of gratitude. Even after all those years of training the resistance fighters and their strange manners still managed to confuse her. Especially his manners, because Poe seemed to be a strange human being. That made it even more difficult for her to assess him. Actually, Alex thought that she had figured him out by now, but the situation was a proof she had still not managed to and she blamed it on the face that some of his usual manners were just way too strange for her to figure out.

It took Poe about ten seconds to start asking himself what the hell he was just doing. As the resistance considered themselves to be some kind of big family, it was quite usual to do what he was doing. But it seemed like he had blended out for a moment where he was and who he was with. The fact she was standing on her spot like someone had shoved a stick up her arse and seemed to be just letting it wash over her, made him release her quickly. He stepped back to get more distance between them and looked at her. The confused face she was wearing told him enough, but he was unsure whether he was allowed to consider it funny. Because somehow it was. The First Order and their military and hierarchic structure probably did not even allow something as stupid as gratitude. Poe cleared his throat and smiled innocently. "Sorry." That got her back from the shock. „It's okay," she murmured.

The resistance pilot decided to move the conversation to safer grounds. "To get back at your question. I'm fine." Alex gestured to a torn spot on the upper arm of his orange flight suit. "Are you sure? You are bleeding." Poe looked down onto his arm and moved it, noticing quite fast that it was not broken or injured. "Just a scratch." She nodded contently. „I think I already got me a new blanket," she then said referencing to the animal in the snow. "What are you doing out here?" he inquired. "What am I supposed to be doing in nowhere land in heavy snowfall? I was searching for you. And as we both can see, you really needed to be found in time." Poe eyed her annoyed. "The only reason I am out here are you. Because instead of waking me up, you just leave without telling me," he complained. Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't you say yesterday that I was a big girl and able to watch out for myself? I don't think I need your permission to go outside," she snapped. Poe opened his mouth to reply something but she interrupted. "I know you love to imagine this protective instinct or whatever you call it to be nice, but it is not necessary and annoying as well. So far, I have been able to take care of myself perfectly." "Without the what you call is an unnecessary, annoying protection instinct, by now you would be nothing more than a frozen, partly eaten away corpse", he replied visibly annoyed. Alex snorted and she bent down to grab the dead animal. "I have not rescued your cute backside twice to watch you getting lost and freeze to death," he told her.

Alex let go of the cadaver, straightened up, turned and put her hands in her sides. "Me? Lost? Judging by how far you are off the way to the crash site, I'd say you are the one who got lost." "If you haven't noticed, it's snowing and the sight is rather bad", he tried to argue. He had never been that much of a navigator, but she did not have to know that. Unsurprisingly, Alex did not accept his excuse. "And? Compared to you, I at least know how to mark the way so I don't get lost." "In this heavy snow?" She shrugged. „I already told you to spare yourself the protectiveness", she said and grabbed the cadaver again, starting to pull it with her. That turned out to be more difficult than imagined, because the animal was far heavier than imagined and the ankle-high snow did not make it easier either. Poe shook his head and walked over to help her. "You should not take the "protection instinct" as you call it, incorrectly. I am not doing this because I like you, I am doing this for myself. You surely have noticed by now that I need you as much as you need me to get off this planet. Which inevitably brings me again to the question of what you are doing out here," he asked while both of them pulled the animal into the direction of the cave Alex had pointed out.

Alex glared at him from the side. "If you want to know. I have been outside to search for some firewood, while you were still sleeping so deep a star destroyer could have fired next to you without waking you up. When I returned you were gone. It was not difficult to guess that you thought I had gone to the crash site and followed me," she told him.

She really did not want to explain something she did not even understand herself. But Poe pressed further. "That does not explain why you searched for me." „I don't like being in other people's debt. And I knew you would never find the way." Poe grinned triumphantly. "So much about the protection instinct that is annoying, right? I am a big boy who can take care of himself," he said, trying to imitate her voice. "Well, as you can see, you can't. But you already stated correctly, that I do need you to get off this planet," she replied. "Maybe we should add something to our basic set of rules then," he suggested. "Starting now, we tell each other where we are going. Not because anyone of us needs protection, but because of our mutual interest in leaving this planet."

Thanks to a skilled marking made of sticks in the snow, which Alex retrieved on their way back to use them as firewood later, both of them reached the cave they temporarily called home rather easily. While Alex started to first dissect and then skin the animal thoroughly so the parts of flesh would not start to rot her blanket within days in the entrance area, Poe went inside to warm himself up at the fire.

He touched his wet hair. Even though his flight suit had proven to be more waterproof than imagined, he had slipped out of it so it could dry. Because of that, he was cold and desperately wished for a warm shower and a comfy bed. Actually, even a towel would do. He and Alex would have to work faster on leaving this planet or at least find civilisation. Otherwise they would surely start fighting just because they were a nervous wreck by then. Poe wrapped himself further into the fur, grumbling about the fact it started to smell rather badly after the days of use. And he was no exception to that. It had been days since he last had a shower and, despite the fact Alex stated the contrary, he was sure he smelled like a wampa by now. The pilot looked over to the entrance area where Alex seemed to be busy. If he could use one of here metal boxes to melt snow and get warm water, he would at least be able to wash himself, even though he did not have any soap.

The resistance pilot got up again and went outside to ask her for the metal box. Of course he could just have used it, but did not want them to start arguing again. He stopped a few meters behind her and watched her for a moment. He had to admit she looked rather skilled with her knife. It seemed it was not the first time she had to skin an animal. Strangely, in the resistance there was always a discussion about who would do it when it came to such things. Even though all of them had surely seen enough blood for a lifetime and it therefore should not be a problem for anyone. But not all of them were equally resistant to bad smell and able to manage the skinning without making it a big, bloody mess.

Alex hadn't noticed Poe's presence behind her and continued to work until she was hit by something cold and hard on her backside. Intuitively, she pulled out her blaster and turned quickly, searching for the source of the object. Much to her surprise, there was no creature wanting to kill her, only Poe. He was standing a few meters behind her with a snowball in his hand, laughing. "What the hell?" The resistance pilot hadn't been able to resist. She had been so focused on her work, she had been unalert. It had been a situation screaming for a thrown snowball. And he had made a perfect hit. The confused way she was looking at him was hilarious. He juggled the snowball in his hand and grinned. "Couldn't resist…" he told her grinning. Alex gave him a serious look. "Why are you throwing snow at me? she asked and put the blaster away. "Because I can? And because it's funny?" Alex raised an eyebrow. „What is funny about that?" she asked, not understanding at all. The resistance pilot did not answer and instead threw the snowball at her. She did not expect that and was hit again, this time on her thigh. „Stop it!",she ordered. Poe smiled. „And if I don't?" Alex looked at him, visibly annoyed. If he thought he could throw snow at her, she would get her revenge. So she knelt down, grabbed a handful of snow, formed a ball and threw it at him. But the pilot avoided her ball with a step to the side. "You need to aim better to hit me," he told her and took two steps into her direction to gather more snow. Alex followed the movement, having figured out his plan on instance. She grabbed more snow to throw at him. This time she hit him on his back, what made her laugh. The resistance pilot, now armed with three snowballs, went into attack, but this time she was able to avoid the hit.

For a third person it must have been a hilarious sight, because there were a pilot from the First Order and her Resistance counterpart on a lonely planet in heavy snowfall fighting each other, for the first time of their lives without weapons, with harmless snow, laughing like two children. At some point, Poe initiated part two of the fight and engaged in hand to hand combat. After a brief exchange of more snowballs, he pulled her to the ground with him, pinning her to the ground with his own weight, scattering some snow over her face. Alex, who had not been expecting that, started to cough as the snow had hit her full in the face. "Are you okay?" he asked. The other pilot did not answer, but hooked her leg with his to turn them around. While turning, she grabbed a handful of snow, but only managed to hit his face half. When she was leaning above him, she started to laugh because with snow in his face and hair he looked ridiculous. Poe couldn't help himself either and joined in. Still laughing, she let go of him and rolled over into the snow. "If someone had seen us…" she started a sentence. Poe grinned. „Why? Because you don't know the concept of a snowball fight?" "You do that regularly?" she asked, intrigued. "As a child of course. At least if you live on a planet that has snow." The first order pilot thought about it. She had never taken part in anything similar, but it was rather entertaining. "Maybe I should make an application to add it into our training schedule." He nodded. "Could be fun."

Eventually, he remembered why he had come out in the first place. "Actually, I just wanted to ask whether I can use one of your boxes to warm up some water in it." She raised an eyebrow. "Why are you even asking?" „I thought it would be nice. Who knows how important that box is to you. And I don't want you to be angry." She shook her head. „Well then…", he said and stood up, holding out his hand to help her up.

„How far are you with our dinner?" Poe then wanted to know. She made a gesture with her head towards the remains of the animal. "You can take the meat." „And the rest?" he inquired. „The thing with the fur is more complicated than I thought," she admitted. "How did you preserve it? Even if I manage to cut off all small bits of flesh, that thing will be starting to rot in two days. And even in these temperature there will be insects." He smiled at her. „Believe me, you don't want to know that." Alex put her hands in her sides. "Tell me." He laughed. „I peed on it," he told her amused. „You WHAT?" she asked, internally shivering at the thought of having used the furs he had given her. Poe shrugged. "During training in the republic's army they told us it's not the best solution, but better than nothing. You don't find any decent tanning agents around here. And don't worry, I washed and dried it afterwards." Alex shuddered. „If you want me to, I can take care of yours as well," he offered. But she shook her head insistently. "No way." He shrugged again. „Okay," he told her and took the food inside with him.

Alex followed his movements as he walked back into the cave and looked down on the fur when he had disappeared inside. He could not be serious. She shook her head, deciding to postpone the question of conservation and finish removing the bits of flesh on the fur.

When she entered the cave later on with her fur in tow, she stopped already a few steps inside, because Poe was standing with his back turned to her, naked as the day he was born, pouring water from her metal box down onto himself.


	8. Episode VIII - Shower habits

Heaven's falling

Episode VIII: Shower habits

Now she understood why the Resistance pilot wanted to use the warmed up water for. She had secretly hoped he'd found a small stash of caf somewhere, because that was, apart from her bed, a shower and a decent meal, the thing she missed the most. Alex had to admit that the idea with her metal box was a good one. One she should have thought of herself. Alex eyed the pilot, who still had not noticed her presence, once from head to toe while he was washing sweat and dirt off his body.

As you should probably expect from a pilot flying an X-Wing and with that having to withstand the physical strain involved in flying, he appeared rather fit from the backside. And he appeared to have taken the crash way better than she did. Only a few bruises that were already turning into a greenish-yellow colour, on his legs, his back and his shoulder - probably from where the seatbelt had pressed him into his seat - and a few smaller cuts on his arm were the only signs he had crashed at all. Apart from that, she was able to make out some old, healed injuries. Which also was not really surprising at all. He was a soldier like her. It would have been naive to think that despite the usage of bacta-patches and bacta-tanks there wouldn't be any remains from former assignments and battles. Alex was probably not looking that different when it came to that. In general, she had to admit that the back-view he was offering her was quite appealing. Only about a minute later, she noticed what she was doing and shook her head about her action. So Alex took a deep breath and entered the cave, apparently unflustered.

„You could have told me what you needed the water for," a voice told Poe from the left. Poe flinched and started to cough due to the surge of water that was still pouring down on him. Alex walked by behind him, clearly unfazed, and attached the fur to two sticks close to the fire to dry. Poe just grabbed the closest item to himself, which was the metal box, holding it in front of his important body parts and turned around. "What are you doing here?" he asked confused. "If you haven't noticed yet, we share this cave," she replied. "You could have waited outside," he suggested. "How should I have known what you are doing in here? You didn't tell me," Poe sighed as he had a point. He probably should have told her that he wanted to shower, but he had thought she would be busy with her fur for quite a while longer.

When she showed no signs to go outside again or leave him some privacy, he cleared his throat. "Would you at least have the decency to turn around so I can get dressed?" Poe asked in a friendly but commanding way. Alex raised her left eyebrow and sat down at the fire. "Why?" she asked with an indifferent look on her face, which he returned rather stunned. "You are seriously asking why?" Alex shrugged and turned the meat Poe had started to cook over the fire. "Do you really think I have not seen a…" she started a sentence, but Poe gave her a glare of which she was confident it would have been able to kill her on instance. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes. "Fine. Then at least give me back my box, so I can collect some more snow." For that she got another glare. "You are making this unnecessarily difficult, you know?" she told him, reached into her clothes bag next to the fire and removed a black t-shirt from it. Then she stood up, walked over to the unclothed man, holding out the shirt for him. Poe alternated between looking at her and at the shirt, trying to figure out her plan. "What am I supposed to be doing with that?" "Don't you need a towel?" The pilot took the shirt with his free hand and exchanged it with the metal box. Alex grabbed the box and walked out. "You have five minutes," she shouted from outside.

When she returned back inside, Poe was sitting next to the fire in his orange flight suit, wrapped in his fur and was currently attaching his trousers and his shirt he had washed to some more sticks next to the fire. Alex put the snow filled metal box onto a stone at the edge of the fire so the snow inside could melt. Much to his surprise, she pulled off her boots and started to remove the bandages from her foot and her hand. "What are you doing?" he asked. "What does it look like? I like your idea, so why shouldn't I shower as well?" Alex replied. "Here?" "Where else? Outside in the cold?" „Now?" he inquired. „Why not?" Poe pointed at his clothes next to the fire as a sign he was only wearing his flight suit and the fur. "It's way too cold for me to go out in that state", Poe replied. "Compared to you, I am not sensitive. I don't care whether other people might see me showering," Alex told him and placed the wooden shin from her foot next to her. "But…"

She rolled her eyes again. „Sometimes I wonder how the Resistance is still working with all those ideals you have." "What?" "It's rather decent that you value privacy and gender separation that much, but it's annoying and unnecessary. In the end, we all are nothing more than small parts of something bigger and you should arrange everything as simple as possible," she told him and concentrated on her wrist. "You don't have separate showers?" She shook her head. „Should we? To build two sets of showers only causes twice the effort. And separating men and women just causes useless bureaucracy when it comes to the arrangements of quarters", Alex told him convinced. She could not understand his astonishment about this in the slightest bit. Since she had been with the First Order, which was all of her life, she had shared her quarters with her unit where it was completely irrelevant whether they were male or female. As a unit they shared everything, because they were a team. There was no space for individual interests or any kind of special treatment because of someone's gender. They were all the same and got the same. So for her it was one of the most usual things in the world to share her living accommodations with men.

„Even if we had separate showers, I have seen enough naked men in life and you surely have seen enough naked women. So there surely wouldn't be anything to see you haven't seen before, right? We both know you have to lose a reputation here", she told him grinning and got down to her flight suit. "I guess you are right, but…" "But, what? Something ugly might happen, when men and women shower together? Do you seriously thing you have not enough self-restraint to not touch, pull down and fuck a naked women when you see one?"

„Pardon?" he asked, appalled. Alex did not flinch, but continued to look at him indifferently. "You heard me. This is one of those silly arguments everyone comes up with, pretending none of us is able of some self-restraint, presuming everyone's brain just shuts down as soon as we see some naked skin. I don't know how you handle it, but I am perfectly able to see someone without pouncing on him. Because there are men I don't consider attractive. And even if someone is attractive, I know how to keep decent," she told him, trying to push down the zipper of her flight suit but was apparently stuck from the cold. "Same for me," Poe assured her. "Where is the problem, then?" she asked. Poe shrugged. She definitely had a point. Maybe it was a thing of his different upbringing and customs that the thought of sharing a shower seemed strange for him. He leaned back and grinned. "If you think so. It's you not me that wants to get undressed," he told her amused. He did not have a reason to complain at all, because he would get the show. "Well then."

After several seconds of silence, she gestured to her flight suit. "Can you help me? The zipper is stuck and I can't open it with one hand," she told him. Poe decided to not take this seriously anymore, because this was way too strange to be serious. "Now you even want me to undress you? Are you sure you don't have a hidden agenda?" he asked amused. Alex rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but you are not my type, Dameron," she replied. What the hell was he thinking? Poe grinned again. „So now we have already changed to last names for safety reasons? You are not really convincing." Alex continued to pick on the zipper of her flight suit, trying to open it. "You should be happy I am using your name after all. You are consequently not using mine, so I could call you whatever I want to call you," she snapped. The pilot smiled. "You don't have a last name I could use. Unless I would make one up," he suggested. „Don't," she replied quickly. Even though she had to admit she started to like the name he had given her, she did not want him to make up another one. He turned his head. "Are you sure? It would surely be magnificent."

The First Order pilot was starting to be really annoyed about the fact that he did not do what he was supposed to. "Shut up and just do it," she ordered. Poe however decided to have a bit more fun instead. "Are you so eager to get undressed by me? Usually I tend to do those things a bit more slowly," he told her with a twinkle. She rolled her eyes. "You should be eager, because the more you annoy me, the higher the probability of me forgetting our agreement and shooting you."

The Resistance pilot just continued to grin. The situation was hilarious and it was so much fun. The look on her face just said everything. "You wouldn't do that. You insist on not believing any of the gossip of your base, but I don't believe you. I am confident that you are quite curious about whether the rumours about me are true. Who knows what you are planning," he told her. Alex opened her mouth to say something but stopped before doing so as Poe softly touched her cheek to remove a strain of hair. "We said that everything that happens here, stays here. Maybe there are more things that could stay here than you imagine," he told her and smiled. She looked into his brown eyes. Force, she hated him for trying that on her. And she hated herself even more, because a part of her did not reject that as much as her brain did. Alex took a deep breath. "I believe it's more your agenda than mine, Dameron. I know you think your smile is incredibly handsome, but I am still not interested in you." The Resistance pilot started to laugh. "Good, because I am not interested in you either," he said, grabbed the zipper of her flight suit with both hands and pulled it down forcefully so she was able to do the rest herself.

Alex slipped out of her flight suit, got up and limped over to the corner of the cave Poe had chosen to be the shower spot with the metal box in her hand. There, she put the bot onto the ground and started, with her back turned to Poe, remove the rest of her clothes. Meanwhile Poe was desperately searching for a way to distract himself, because his sense of decency clearly rejected watching her shower. The fact that she did not seem to care did not really make the feeling in his gut make it feel less wrong. When Alex was just about to remove her last shirt, Poe decided to act and quickly. So he turned to face the wall on the other side, trying to think about what they could do with the rest of the day. The snowfall had not eased, which probably meant they had to stay inside.

"You know you are way too decent for this galaxy," she told him after what seemed to be an eternity. Poe turned in the strong belief that she was finished, but found her still standing on the same spot, with her back turned towards him, fiddling with some knots in her wet hair. "It's kind of interesting that you are checking whether I am watching you," he told her amused. Alex grinned. "You have been strangely silent. I just wanted to make sure you did not die," she said without turning. The Resistance pilot could not help himself from checking her out. Not that he had thought about it that much, but he had known right from the beginning that she was attractive. So the status of her body did not really surprise him and was not way off from his expectations.

When he turned around the next time, Alex had successfully washed her flight suit, put it up next to the fire and had slipped back into her uniform. Much to his surprise, she had decided to not use her new fur. "Did you..?" he started, but got a glare in return. „Don't ask." The Resistance pilot just nodded and made a gesture for her to come over to him so he could help her bandaging her wrist and ankle again. Compared to the days before, where he had to argue with her about it, she did not hesitate to walk over and sat down in front of him, so he could put the fur around her shoulders as well. "We could continue to build the sub-construction for our sleigh today," he suggested as some point while still bandaging her hand. "Now we are suddenly in a hurry to leave this planet?" she asked. "Didn't we always want to leave this planet fast? I really don't want to stay here longer than necessary and I think you don't want that either." Alex nodded. Even though the company had turned out to be way better than imagined, she really had to leave. She had to get back before someone started to think she defected. Additionally she needed to get home quickly, because the Resistance pilot started to be on her mind way more often than needed.

After both of them had warmed up and Alex wrist and ankle were bandaged, they continued to work on their sleigh. While Poe was busy cutting another branch into the second skid for the sleigh, Alex took her toolbox and sat down next to the pile of stuff they got from the ships. Now and then, Poe couldn't help himself from looking at what she was doing. It seemed like she had already identified some useful parts in the large pile, because she had started to build something. Poe could not yet identify the purpose of it, but she seemed confident. Late at night, both had managed to build a sub-construction for the sleigh made of the two skids, several smaller wooden parts and debris from the planes and some bolts. They would already be able to use it as a transport aid to carry more stuff to their cave.

After another involuntary night with only one fur as a blanket, both set off early the next morning, wrapped in their dried clothes and fur, towards the crash sites to get more stuff from there. Poe had to admit they had even managed to find a good way of working together. And even communication went way easier, because the day before they had been able to identify a topic both had a lot to say about: Ships. While both had been working on their respective part of the sleigh, they had been peacefully, but controversially discussing pros and cons of several types of transport and fighter planes.

While Alex had started to work on the power unit they wanted to put on the sleigh, Poe went off, armed with only a hammer and a screwdriver to build a construction to put onto the sleigh upon what they would put the hatch of Poe's X-Wing as a roof. To determine the measurements of his construction, he sat down on his usual position inside the cockpit of his X-Wing. Despite the coldk he noticed quickly that this was a place where he could stay for hours. His hand searched for the familiar feeling of the control stick inside it. He was quite sure that during the last five years there had not been a period without flying as long as it was now.

„Already getting sentimental?" He looked down to Alex, who appeared to have worked on the computers of her TIE-fighter and therefore had small screens, cables and circuit boards in both of her hands. "Maybe…" he replied with a smile. Alex nodded, put her stuff onto the sleigh and climbed up to him. She eyed the interior of the cockpit quite interested. She had been thinking about flying one of them before, now that she was seeing the interior it did not get better at all. It did not appear to be as modern as her TIE-fighters and a bit more mechanical in the controls than hers, but she immediately started to analyse all knobs and levers for their function. Poe noticed her interest and grinned from the side. "Do you want to sit in it?" he asked. Alex knew she should not do this if she ever wanted to lose her interest in the X-Wing, but who was here to care? Additionally, it would surely be an advantage in her next fight to know exactly how her opponent's ship worked. "Why not…"

Poe just wanted to get out of the cockpit when a loud bang sounded from the distance and the ground started to vibrate slightly. As both had not foreseen this, they got startled and lost the balance. Poe fell back into his seat and landed rather comfortably on the soft cushion. Alex, who had been standing on the side of the cockpit and had tried to grasp something on the ship fell, backwards into the cockpit. Poe somehow managed to catch her, so she landed halfway on his lap and halfway in his arms. Both exchanged a confused look. "Everything okay?" he asked without loosening his grip on her. She laughed. "I had a rather soft landing. I should rather ask you." The other pilot just nodded as a sign that nothing happened to him either. "What was that?" Alex then asked. The resistance pilot smiled. "I guess that was the proof that we are not alone on this planet."


End file.
